B-29's, P-51 escorts vs 262's

This is as hypothetical as it gets but is a question that popped to mind. You have a 1000 plane raid on Berlin by B-29's escorted by 200 or so P-51's, your attacked by 300 or so 262 jet fighters .... who gets the worst of it? ... assuming this is sometime in 1945 and Germany has a sufficient amount of 262's and decent pilots to fly them ....

No more questions tonight ... sleep on it ... goodnight all ....

[The Inspector]

The Mig 15 proved the GE sighting system in the B-29 couldn't track the jets and accurately lay fire during Korea and the 262/Mig are fairly close in speeds with of course the Mig having better acceleration due to a more developed engine and lighter airframe, so my guess from this far back in the parade would be pretty much a slaughter of B-29's. Imagine what could have transpired if Japan had gotten the Kiska operational-

[Bill Greenwood]

The Me 262 had 3 strong points: Big nasty guns, 30 mm cannon mounted right in the nose: fast climb, better than anything else; high speed, about 90 to 100 mph faster in Level flight than a 51 D or a Spit Mk XIV. but it wasn't totally one sided. The jet was short range, and the service ceiling was lower than the Merlin planes,the engines wore out fast, and one last thing, the critical max dive speed was lower than a Spitfire, maybe lower than a P-51.
If the jets attacked the bomber formation at high speed their fire could be deadly, if the pilots were good enough to hit something at high closing speed. The fighter escort, like 51s would have one chance to intercept them on the way in, and maybe dive on them if they had a height advantage. The jets are not going to stay around for a turning fight, they might either try to dive away or use their high speed climb to pull up and away.
I think some of the jets were shot down at low altitude near their bases when short of fuel and returning to land. I have a painting by Frank Wootton of the first Allied fighter victory over a jet, on the landing of the stairs in my house, so I walk by it daily. It is RCAF or RAF pilot Hadley Everhard in a Griffon Spitfire, probably a XIV, shooting down a Me 262 at low altitude. I looked this up in the records and it was listed as a kill, so the painting depicts a real event.

[maxum96]

Just to add what you said Bill, I'm sure everyone remembers Chuck Yeager got a ME-262 while it was on approach to an airfield.

[APG85]

Interesting discussion. When FIFI gets back in the air, it would be neat to see it in formation with one of the replica ME-262s. Have any of the B-17's flown with one of the replicas yet?

[sgt hawk]

One of the first things that Alied Pilots learned about the 262 was that the first bunch were "tail draggers" which caused the jet exhaust to melt blacktop runways. These 262's were stationed at airports with concrete runways. When they were sited by Alied pilots, the alert call of "Jets, Jets" would be anounced over the radio, since the 262 was only good for an hour in the air, all Alied fighters with enough fuel would begin orbiting one of the concrete runway fields and wait for the 262's to land. Their limited maneauverability at lower speeds made them easy targets. Even with the tricycle upgrade they still melted blacktop.